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RESEARCH
don't let psychological effects influence their decision. Don’t just keeping up, stay one step ahead ANALYSIS
We need data, numbers and facts - in depth and speed instead TRENDS
- that we as humans could neither understand nor
make available fast enough. The prerequisite for Responsible entrepreneurs should now empower their
smooth communication between AIs is - much more marketing, sales, service and communications
than today - the availability and accessibility of correct, departments to work on the future of their
current and relevant data. communications, simply because it is crucial for the
competitive situation of companies to adapt their own
But anyone who hopes that this will make any channel sales behavior to the changed shopping behavior of
superfluous will be disappointed. The past few decades target groups - and ideally even to anticipate this
have shown that channels and technologies can lose change. It is important to make time and resources
importance after time, but never disappear entirely. available for the observation and analysis of new
Communication channels are also subject to trends, technologies and behavior changes. Industry
which are currently called digitization, automation and associations, as well as trade fairs and congress
artificial intelligence. But the complexity does not organizers, often offer lectures and workshops on the
decrease, but increase, making AI more indispensable.
various trend topics. Of course, it is also possible to
conduct in-house workshops or to hire external
Fortunately, the fear that communication could
completely lose its human touch is unfounded. It is not consultants. By experimenting with automation and AI
a contradiction: technology sometimes makes in their communication, companies train their future
communication even more human. What we perceive viability. When researching suitable tools, it is advisable
as typical human communication is communication with to hire an employee from the communications
an individual character, real one-to-one communication. department who is tech-savvy and trained in linguistics.
Such communication is direct, fast, specific, relevant, Many technology providers offer free trial accounts and
understandable, trusting and personal. In fact, AI can support users in experimenting.
meet all these criteria for one-on-one communication: The change in corporate communication is omnipresent
the first chatbot in history has been Eliza, a virtual and digitalization is inevitable. In order to survive in the
psychotherapist that computer scientist Joseph competition of the future, it is essential for companies
Weizenbaum programmed back in 1966. In such an to now consider the possibilities of artificial intelligence
individual interaction, machines even have advantages: - both regarding their own communication scenarios
not only can they interpret our behavior, our facial and regarding the information needs and preferred
expressions, voice and body signals, their own applications of their target group. Of course, dealing
communication does not flow into their communication, with privacy, digital ethics and security challenges
since a chatbot doesn't have bad days.
generated by AI and other evolving technologies will
become critical to maintain trust and avoid legal
entanglements, but let’s talk about this crucial topic
another time. ◊ By Daniela La Marca

7 February 2020: Automation & AI: accelerator in digital marketing